Saturday, June 10, 2017

One Per Cent And Rising

In 2016, the Economic Policy Institute published a study about wealth in the United States and included the average income of the top 1 percent of earners in every state (based on 2013 data). If EPI’s report is even remotely close to accurate, Sanders was not only in the top 1 percent of earners in the state of Vermont in 2016, he earned hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the average earner in that group.

According to EPI, the average earner in the top 1 percent in Vermont earned $735,607, nearly $60,000 less than the money Sanders received for his book deal and more than $250,000 less than what Sanders is projected to have earned when all sources of income are taken into account.

According to Senate.gov, Sanders’ Senate salary in 2016 was $174,000, the same salary he’s earned in the Senate since 2009. Sanders first joined the Senate in 2007, which means he’s earned more than $1.7 million in taxpayer funds alone since first being elected.

Incredibly, just days after news broke about Sanders’ earnings, the self-described socialist senator took to Twitter to bash the dreaded “1 percent,” who Sanders has long criticized for not paying their “fair share” and for earning their fortunes on the backs of the poor and disenfranchised.